GM’s New Certified Pre-Owned Program Offers Free Standard Maintenance

Looking to enhance its Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) program, GM now claims to be the first automaker to offer two years of free standard maintenance in the pre-owned vehicle market. Dropping the GM Certified Used Vehicle brand name it used to sell Chevrolet, Buick and GMC CPO vehicles in the past, GM has gotten with the times and adopted “GM Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles” as the new name for its program, with the new maintenance service called “Owner Care.” The new program goes into effect this Saturday and includes other new features in addition to the two-year standard maintenance.

The two-year/30,000-mile maintenance program covers tire rotations, oil changes based on a vehicle’s Oil Life Monitoring system and multi-point inspections free of charge to the owner. The program will continues to offer 12-month/12,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty as well as a five-year/100,000-mile limited powertrain warranty. Other features include 24-hour roadside assistance, courtesy transportation and free trials of OnStar and Sirius/XM satellite radio.By backing its CPO vehicles with a standard maintenance program, GM says it’s offering more value to CPO customers, who in the past may not have known the difference between a CPO and used car. By dropping the term “used” from the program name itself, GM likely hopes to move away from the used car image, instead following a path that other brands have blazed with their CPO programs. Evidence of this can be seen in the raised standards of GM’s program, which now includes a 172-point inspection – increased from the previous 117 points – and the more rigorous reconditioning process CPO candidates are subjected to.